Stars
by Kem'Ajiana
Summary: The stars said that Chirpsong wasn't destined to fall in love – her purpose was to be a warrior, and only that. But, when Sparrowstorm risks his life to defend her, those stars fell out of alignment for them. Rated T for: character death and some blood.


_Stars_

By Kem'Ajiana

_Summary: The stars said that Chirpsong wasn't destined to fall in love – her purpose was to be a warrior, and only that. But, when Sparrowstorm risks his life to defend her, those stars fell out of alignment for them._

* * *

**ShadowClan Allegiances:**

**Leader: **Birdstar – tortoiseshell she-cat with amber eyes

**Deputy: **Stormwing – mottled, dark gray tabby tom

**Medicine Cat: **Dustcloud – dark brown tabby she-cat with pale blue eyes; apprentice: _Fallowpaw_

**Warriors:**

Mossnose – dark ginger tabby tom

Beechsky – dark ginger-and-white tabby tom; apprentice: Sandypaw

Sparrowstorm – pale ginger tabby tom with blue eyes

Whitespot – black-and-white she-cat

Perchflight – gray-and-white tom

Honeypelt – pale ginger she-cat; apprentice: Birchpaw

Ashmouse – long-legged gray tom

Chirpsong – tortoiseshell-and-white she-cat with amber eyes

Tawnylight – ginger tabby tom with amber eyes

**Apprentices:**

Fallowpaw – black she-cat with a white underbelly and tailtip

Sandypaw – pale cream tabby she-cat

Birchpaw – brown tabby tom with green eyes

**Queens:**

Ripplestream – slim, silver-gray she-cat; mother of Mossnose's kits: Hollowkit (gray tom), Thornkit (ginger tom), and Sharpkit (ginger she-cat)

Snowgaze – pale gray she-cat with blind blue eyes; mother of Ashmouse's kit: Palekit (pale gray she-cat)

Hazeltuft – brown tabby she-cat with tufted ears; mother of Perchflight's kits: Morningkit (brown-and-gray she-cat), Milkkit (very pale gray she-cat), Molekit (brown tom), and Maplekit (ginger she-cat)

Otterleap – brown tabby she-cat; expecting Beechsky's kits

Larchfur – ginger-and-white she-cat; expecting Whitespot's kits

**Elders:**

Poppybelly – long-furred tortoiseshell she-cat

Aspenshade – black tom

Nettleclaw – dark ginger tabby tom

* * *

**Part One: A Price to Pay**

_Dustcloud says she must have read the stars wrong. That StarClan would not have allowed this to happen if it were not meant to be._

_No one believes her._

_They know, all too well, that she's only just trying to save my skin because she enjoys my company._

_Shame that she did not have to power to save Sparrowstorm. He was ten times the warrior I would ever have become._

_But he's dead, now. My beloved Sparrowstorm is dead._

_And it's all because of these cursed kits._

* * *

My life did not differ all that much from any other ShadowClan warrior's – if at all. My mother was named Dawnflight, and she bore my littermates and I too soon for her young body to handle, something that was not too uncommon in those days. My father watched her and my brother slip away to StarClan with all the stoicism of a seasoned, well-trained warrior.

The entire clan did.

There were plenty of queens to replace her, after all. She-cats born and raised to bear kits for our clan.

My sister and I were not destined for that path – or so we were told from the start. We were born to be _warriors_. Defenders of our clan. The providers.

Well, _I _was. My sister – Birdkit – was born to be greater than all of that.

She was born to _lead_. And I was born to follow blindly in her pawsteps. Always one step behind, in the shadow of her greatness. I had nothing but my life to offer to my clan.

Or, so I was raised.

My sister and I were raised by Hazeltuft, a friendly young queen that had grown up beside my mother. We did not learn that she was our mother's sister – our kin – until we were much older. Her son, Tawnykit, was a boisterous thing, just a moon younger than Birdkit and I, and we grew up together like littermates. From the beginning, however, the three of us were meant to be on separate paths.

When we became apprentices, we were paired with those of our chosen rank:

Birdpaw was apprenticed to Gorsestar, whom she would one day come to succeed.

Tawnypaw was apprenticed to Aspenshade, a huge tom that had fathered many warriors.

And I was apprenticed to Poppybelly.

After we became apprentices, everything about our lives changed.

Our friends changed, the way our clan looked at us changed. It seemed, in some ways, our very loyalty changed.

_All because of our birth._

Dustcloud says that, when a cat is born, StarClan whispers in her ear the one thing they are destined to become. There is no wasted time in training – no choice or chance that a cat may accidentally mess things up. The warriors of our past had made it clear that ordinary cats could not be trusted to follow our 'instincts'. If we could, cats like Tigerstar would never have come to live.

"_Everything happens for a reason. StarClan has a plan for every one of us._" Dustcloud would tell me.

Well, StarClan definitely botched this plan.

The stars are all out of alignment for me.

* * *

A/N: _This will be a relatively short story. Just a few chapters told in Chirpsong's POV. Enjoy and don't forget to leave a review! ~Kem_


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